Hart County Layoffs
The Hart County School System employs more than 500 people. All of them…the teachers, janitors, counselors, bus drivers, and principals do a great job but now up to 25 of them will be jobless in the next few weeks.
“Unfortunately, this has to take place now.”
Dr. David Hicks, superintendant of Hart County Schools says this is their last resort. Earlier this year, Governor Sonny Perdue mandated statewide budget cuts for all districts. Those cuts have forced many systems to increase their school property taxes to fill that hole…but not Hart County’s Board members.
“The economy isn’t doing well. People have lost jobs and they didn’t want to shift the burden to local tax payers,” Hicks tells NewsChannel 32.
The board voted 3 to 2 not to raise the school millage rate by 1.6 mills. Hicks recommended an increase to slightly more than 15 mills to cover the gap in the system’s budget.
That gap of more than $1.2 million is the result of state mandated pay raises for teachers and increases for fuel and energy.
Now it’s up to Dr. Hicks to fill that shortfall and right now his options are limited.
Before it came down to this, School officials tried cutting corners by buying fewer supplies and doing without. But it wasn’t enough. That only cut about $100,000 from the budget.
“This is an accumulation of years and years of cutting and why a lot of systems are in this situation.”
Hicks, says he’s looked at all the possibilities and as things stand, the only thing left to cut are employees. But this system’s superintendant says things shouldn’t have come to this.
“If I have to shift blame, I would say a lot of responsibility falls on the state because they haven’t met their constitutional obligation of educating our students.”
He adds you can’t do that without sufficient funding from the state government.
The Hart County School System’s budget is around $32 million.
The board will know in the next two weeks exactly how many and which employees they’ll have to lay off.
“Unfortunately, this has to take place now.”
Dr. David Hicks, superintendant of Hart County Schools says this is their last resort. Earlier this year, Governor Sonny Perdue mandated statewide budget cuts for all districts. Those cuts have forced many systems to increase their school property taxes to fill that hole…but not Hart County’s Board members.
“The economy isn’t doing well. People have lost jobs and they didn’t want to shift the burden to local tax payers,” Hicks tells NewsChannel 32.
The board voted 3 to 2 not to raise the school millage rate by 1.6 mills. Hicks recommended an increase to slightly more than 15 mills to cover the gap in the system’s budget.
That gap of more than $1.2 million is the result of state mandated pay raises for teachers and increases for fuel and energy.
Now it’s up to Dr. Hicks to fill that shortfall and right now his options are limited.
Before it came down to this, School officials tried cutting corners by buying fewer supplies and doing without. But it wasn’t enough. That only cut about $100,000 from the budget.
“This is an accumulation of years and years of cutting and why a lot of systems are in this situation.”
Hicks, says he’s looked at all the possibilities and as things stand, the only thing left to cut are employees. But this system’s superintendant says things shouldn’t have come to this.
“If I have to shift blame, I would say a lot of responsibility falls on the state because they haven’t met their constitutional obligation of educating our students.”
He adds you can’t do that without sufficient funding from the state government.
The Hart County School System’s budget is around $32 million.
The board will know in the next two weeks exactly how many and which employees they’ll have to lay off.
Labels: Hart County, layoffs
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